Hey guys, so a few friends and I were at Tims and the idea of retaking a course came up. One of my friends suggested that unless a grade is absolutely mandatory, redoing a class would not make sense. However, there seemed to be disagreement around the table.

I was thinking that this is likely because some (or maybe all of us) do not understand fully how redoing a course works (and how it would impact your CA). Lets give student X 40 units attempted, and together he has 120 (on a 4 point scale); giving him a 3.0. Lets pretend he got a D (1 on a Mac scale) in....i dunno...molecular astrophysics (not a real class, I know). So he decides to redo the course and gets an A- (3.7 on 4 point scale).

Does this 3.7 get added to the 120 and STILL get divided by 120 or because it is listed twice on the transcript, get counted as another 3 units ATTEMPTED? In that case, it would be divided by 41 and there would be absolutely no advantage in retaking the course.....do I have it right? I assume since the guy already had the 3 units, how can CA still count it as another course?

Thanks guys!

Hey guys, so a few friends and I were at Tims and the idea of retaking a course came up. One of my friends suggested that unless a grade is absolutely mandatory, redoing a class would not make sense. However, there seemed to be disagreement around the table.

I was thinking that this is likely because some (or maybe all of us) do not understand fully how redoing a course works (and how it would impact your CA). Lets give student X 40 units attempted, and together he has 120 (on a 4 point scale); giving him a 3.0. Lets pretend he got a D (1 on a Mac scale) in....i dunno...molecular astrophysics (not a real class, I know). So he decides to redo the course and gets an A- (3.7 on 4 point scale).

Does this 3.7 get added to the 120 and STILL get divided by 120 or because it is listed twice on the transcript, get counted as another 3 units ATTEMPTED? In that case, it would be divided by 41 and there would be absolutely no advantage in retaking the course.....do I have it right? I assume since the guy already had the 3 units, how can CA still count it as another course?

Thanks guys!

On the Mac scale, a D is a 2 (D- is 1). And I'm not sure why you're using the 4.0 scale also? It's kind of confusing. And what is 120 on a 4-point scale?

Anyways, if you retake a course, the marks average out. So if you get a 1 the first time and an 11 the second time, your average would be 6. Essentially, both times taking the course will count towards your CA, and the additional 3 units would also be added for the purposes of calculating your average, but you wouldn't get the credit twice (it wouldn't count as 6 units towards your degree, only 3).

Originally Posted by starfish

On the Mac scale, a D is a 2 (D- is 1). And I'm not sure why you're using the 4.0 scale also? It's kind of confusing. And what is 120 on a 4-point scale?

Anyways, if you retake a course, the marks average out. So if you get a 1 the first time and an 11 the second time, your average would be 6. Essentially, both times taking the course will count towards your CA, and the additional 3 units would also be added for the purposes of calculating your average, but you wouldn't get the credit twice (it wouldn't count as 6 units towards your degree, only 3).

Hey..I figured 4.0 scale would be easier...so essentially what you are saying is that if you attempt 40 courses, have 320 marks...redo 3 of those units which was originally a 1, and now you get a 9. you would do 329 divided by 41?...i just cant make sense of it because you are essentially calculating the same actual course twice...

Originally Posted by dr4357

Hey..I figured 4.0 scale would be easier...so essentially what you are saying is that if you attempt 40 courses, have 320 units...redo 3 of those units which was originally a 1, and now you get a 9. you would do 329 divided by 41?...i just cant make sense of it because you are essentially calculating the same actual course twice...

How do you have 320 units on 40 courses? And redoing 3 of those units brings you to 329? I don't think I follow.

But yes, even though it's the same course it would count twice towards your average, just not towards your number of credits. Like if you fail a course and redo it, the zero will still count towards your average even though you didn't get the credits.

Originally Posted by starfish

How do you have 320 units on 40 courses? And redoing 3 of those units brings you to 329? I don't think I follow.

But yes, even though it's the same course it would count twice towards your average, just not towards your number of credits. Like if you fail a course and redo it, the zero will still count towards your average even though you didn't get the credits.

sorry I meant marks ...but ya thanks that clears it up...so that essentially confirms (to a certain extent) that there is not much benefit in redoing a course rather than doing a completely new course...unless you really want to?

you would take the average of the two courses. If you got a 1 originally and a 9 the second time, you would get a 10/2 = 5 in your CPA

ya i know...my real question is how grad schools will view this though...i guess that depends on the school and program